posted
Some of you may know the answer to this, or may be able to speculate. Either way, I was reading First Meetings, and came to the Ender's Game short story. As I was reading it again, I got to thinking; did Card have the origin of Bean's name in mind when he wrote Ender's Game (not necesarially that he would have a book revolving around Bean, but a reason that he has such a (nick)name.), or did he come up with a back-story only when he came to write Ender's Shadow.
Posts: 15 | Registered: Sep 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Ender's Game started as a short story, but was expanded into a complete novel some years after the short story was published. The explanation given in the novel is "Bean" got his nick from the fact that not only was he quite young, but also small for his age. I haven't read "Ender's Shadow" yet, so don't know if there is more behind his nick than that.
posted
Yeah, there is more of a story behind it. What I'm wondering is if Card might have had that story in mind, because calling someone "Bean" just because they're small is kind of odd.
Posts: 15 | Registered: Sep 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I seriously doubt it. I don't actually know what OSC had in mind for the charecters, but the way he got his nickname is so tied to his whole back story, OSC would have to have planned Bean's entire history out before the short story even, and I'm pretty sure he didn't. Say 97% sure.
posted
I agree with Hobbes. Plus, OSC seems like someone who "looks ahead", like in chess. (Yes, I'm saying that in this way, he is like Bean, which is a very good thing). But even if he just called Bean "Bean" b/c he was small and later developed the idea of his Anton Key switching him to be this super-human guy who dies from gigantisism, it suits me just as well b/c the books are great.
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down"
Posts: 667 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
It could be that Bean was created sort of as an annoyance for Ender. Here's Ender, one of the smartest people on the planet who will end up saving the world, and he's shown up by this kid who's so small, everyone just calls him "Bean". The concept of Anton's Key being responsible for his height could have come up anytime after that.
Posts: 66 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't think so...while there's the possibility, I can't very well entertain it...I don't believe that Bean was so much an annoyance for Ender as he was his younger self. Remember how Ender kept thinking to himself, "I'm being just like Bonzo," and "He's just like me". He definetly wasn't an annoyance and he didn't show Ender up. Ender was the one who ended up controlling the third bugger war and giving commands, and remember how Ender's jeesh was kind of angered when Bean was commanding? So, everyone wanted Ender, so Bean didn't show him up, definetly not. Also, the books just fit too well together for it not to have been pre-planned. I'm trying to think of some reason to prove this though, through something that connects Ender's Game and how Bean is to Ender's Shadow and how Bean is, to prove that it couldn't have been luck that planned Anton's Key changing Bean.
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down"
Posts: 667 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
You know, when I read the books, this question never even occured to me. Now it's all I can think about!
But yeah, it does fit together too well. Maybe OSC was planning a sequel about Bean at the time, but everyone was so enthusiastic about Ender that he had to push it off, and make an entire series with Bean? So he had his whole story worked out, with Anton's Key and such, but he had to wait until Ender-mania died off a bit. Meh, who knows?
Posts: 66 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
But when OSC wrote the short story Ender's Game he wasn't even planning on writing a novel version, and therefor I think it's safe to say that he wasn't planning on writing Ender's Shadow. I think he just picked the name Bean because the character was small and developed the rest later because he needed a background for this kid. But that's just my opinion. Someone COULD e-mail OSC and find out.
Posts: 981 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Wasn't Ender's Game more of an exercise to give him the back story to make "Speaker for the Dead" more potent? I thought I remember him writing about that in the forward. Speaker came first in mind, then Ender's Game as back story. I doubt he had back story for his back story in mind.
posted
I think Ford was talking about the Ender's Game short story, at which point OSC wasn't even thinking about Speaker for the Dead. And there is a part in the story where Ender goes "outside" for the first time he can remember, possibly the first time in his life. I doubt Bean would have gotten the same nick-name had he grown up in the school system and had enough food to eat.
Posts: 981 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Not to argue semantics...because I usually hate such anal-retentive excercises in one-upsmanship...but he wasn't named bean for his size...but for his worth...or lack thereof.
posted
I think, Julie, that Bean would have still gotten the name that he earned if Volescu, after finding that his clean-shop was about to be found out, had put him in a regular school. He still would have had Anton's Key and therefore the disease that came along with being extraordinarily intelligent. But it's possible that what you mean by saying "I doubt Bean would have gotten the same nick-name had he grown up in the school system and had enough food to eat" is that he wouldn't have been nick-named Bean if he didn't have Anton's Key and his mother had given birth to him, in which case I apologize for the misunderstanding!!
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down"
Posts: 667 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
personally i don't think that OSC was planning on making any other story with Enders Game. He probably just chose a cool nick name for one of the kids there. Like Fil said Enders Game was made as a back up story for Speaker for the dead. I mean it's not like he hasn't made nick names for insignificant people before. Like Shovel. No, i think that OSC just was smart and made a really cool story out of someone small But of course i could be wrong and just full of beans. Posts: 27 | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Ksig, you're actually completely right. I recently read something by OSC... hail the Almighty OSC !! in which OSC said that he started to plan EG when he was 16. He wrote it, and then, years later, decided to add on to it. Pretty cool, huh? Yeah, I think so...
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down"
Posts: 667 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Read the foreword of Ender's Shadow. OSC says "for years I have watched Ender's Game grow in popularity. [...] Recently, however, I have come to realize that....[stuff about EG sequels] ...Went so far as to invite a writer whose work I greatly admire, Neal Shusterman to consider working with me to create novels about Ender Wiggin's companions in Battle School. As we talked, it became clear that the most obvious character to begin with would be Bean." This was dated 1999.
So, during Ender's Game, he didn't even know which character he would later be writing about, much less which history.
There is still a small chance that he had the entire history for all the characters while writing EG, but I really doubt it.
Posts: 2292 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
![[Hail]](graemlins/hail.gif)
!! in which OSC said that he started to plan EG when he was 16. He wrote it, and then, years later, decided to add on to it. Pretty cool, huh? Yeah, I think so... 
